"The cemetery at West Barnet has a history which is all its own. One of the first settlers in that locality was Claudius Stuart who came from Scotland about 1775. His wife was one day gathering brush on the hill where the burying ground is now, was pleased with the place and said that when she died she wanted to be buried there. It appears from the date on her gravestone that she died in 1781, and was, probably, the first one buried there (C-05). The next date is 1793, and the next 1797, those of William and Mrs. Janet Brock, respectively.

Claudius Stuart, a soldier under Prince Charles at the 1745 battle of Culloden Moor, is the only occupant of this cemetery whose life exceeded a century.

This was a family burying ground, owned and cared for by the Stuarts, until the death of Capt. Wm. Stuart who died in 1879. His son, Charles, living in Illinois, owned the farm and offered to give the land and as much adjoining it as was needed, for a village burying ground. An Association was formed and incorporated to care for the grounds and administer such funds as might be provided for that purpose.

["History of Barnet Vermont", 1923; pp.189-190]
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The accompanying map was updated from one drafted by Robert Hayes in 1974. It includes numbers for footstones which have been moved from their proper location to a line of headstones; these numbers are included here with annotations to avoid gaps in "headstone numbers".

Several stones are broken and stored in the tool shed. It is truly amazing how smooth they are with such sharp and clear inscriptions when compared with those of the same age standing in the cemetery now weathered almost beyond readability under rain acidified by the pollutants blown in from the western industries of Ohio and Ontario. It is sad that even with the rapid obsolescence of computer technologies, this document may survive some of the same information that is "carved in stone".

Occasionally, a person's data was engraved on an individual stone as well as on the family monument, in such cases both are transcribed, often with inconsequential differences. When a wife or child's inscription shares a stone with the spouse or parent, or is next to it, I have copied the inscription, "His Wife", "dau", etc and annotated it with the name of the person referred to in [brackets]. Rarely, I have inserted a date that has been lost to weathering, or a maiden name, to clarify a confusing relationship between two graves' occupants in italics, indicating the data came from the official vital record vs. gravestone.

Often, the previous Town Clerk's grave record of recent burials contained a month and day that is not on the stone. This "extra" information, usually from burial permits, is in [brackets] to indicate not actually on the stone.

Copies of this map and index have been placed with the Barnet Town Clerk and the Vermont Historical Society for preservation.